Attacks on the Press 2009: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Key Statistic
3: Female journalists threatened with “a bullet to the head” after focusing their work on women’s issues.

Authorities censored coverage of armed conflict and human rights violations in the mineral-rich eastern Kivu provinces. Insecurity reigned in the volatile region, despite the presence of the world’s largest U.N. peacekeeping force. Tens of thousands of people continued to die every month from conflict, disease, and famine, while human rights groups detailed pervasive rape and sexual violence. The vast Central African nation remained among the region’s riskiest for journalists three years after it transitioned to democracy in historic U.N.-backed elections. Throughout the country, officials harassed and obstructed journalists who criticized local officials.

In July, authorities removed French
broadcaster Radio France Internationale
(RFI), a popular source of independent news, from the country’s FM frequencies
over its coverage of the conflict in the eastern provinces. Speaking at a press
conference in the capital, Kinshasa, Communications Minister Lambert Mendé
Omalanga accused the station of “a systematic campaign of demoralization of the
armed forces of the DRC,” according to Agence France-Presse. RFI said Congolese
authorities faulted the station for citing a July 22 AFP news item that
reported on the desertion of ex-rebels who had joined the national army as part
of a peace deal. Earlier in the year, the government had blocked RFI broadcasts
in the eastern cities of Bunia and Bukavu, citing national security. Omalanga
accused RFI reporter Ghislaine Dupont of “attempting to destabilize the
country” after the station reported government setbacks in managing the army
and the peace process, according to local journalists. Expelled in 2006, Dupont
has continued to report on news in the DRC. In a letter to President Joseph Kabila,
CPJ protested the government’s actions against RFI as “arbitrary and based on
unsubstantiated accusations.”

RFI could still be heard
via shortwave, but the loss of its FM broadcasts was significant,
Kinshasa-based reporter Charles Mushizi wrote in a guest column on the CPJ
Blog. “With the national state media confiscated by the majority political
group in power and the private Congolese press weakened by intense financial
and political pressures and repression, most Congolese tune to Radio Okapi, a
joint project of the Hirondelle Foundation and the United Nations Mission in
DRC, and foreign stations like RFI for independent coverage,” Mushizi wrote. “From the viewpoint of
government,” Mushizi added, “national interest trumps fundamental freedoms.”

Across the nation, the Congolese national intelligence agency
(known by its French acronym as ANR) policed newsrooms and broadcast studios
and intimidated reporters who criticized local officials and public figures.
ANR agents repeatedly harassed broadcasters in the central city of Mbuji-Mayi, for example. In April, ANR agents interrogated reporter Jean-Pierre
Katende of Radio Télévision de l’Eglise Evangélique Libre d’Afrique for many
hours after he interviewed a local politician who alleged corruption in the provincial
parliament, according to the local press freedom group Journaliste En Danger
(JED). In November, ANR agents raided the same station and Radio Télévision
Debout Kasaï over commentary concerning road conditions and taxes, according to
local journalists. Jeef Tshidibi, director of Radio Télévision de l’Eglise
Evangélique Libre d’Afrique, and two employees were detained for 10 hours
before being released without charge, according to JED.

Local officials also felt
free to silence broadcasters over critical coverage. On March 11, the
mayor of the southeastern city of Likasi and provincial authorities closed
two private broadcasters, Radio Communautaire du Katanga and
Radiotélévision Likasi 4, in connection with their coverage of a railway
strike, according to JED. None of the officials appeared to have
legal authority to take action against the stations, CPJ research showed. The
bans were lifted in May.

More than a decade after
the fall of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko led to the establishment of a free, private
press, most media outlets are owned by public figures, according to Chantal
Kanyimbo, president of the Congolese National Press Union, who said the
situation has harmed the independence of journalists. In a phenomenon
documented by JED, politicians in power have used security forces to harass
their rivals’ partisan media outlets. Kanyimbo added that economic problems,
including poor salaries and the absence of a substantial advertising market,
have led to unethical practices in the profession. “Journalists are dependent
on their sources of information to pay for their transportation,” she noted.

Journalists continued to
seek reforms in the Congolese penal code and the 1996 press law, particularly
to remove criminal penalties for press offenses such as defamation, according
to Kanyimbo. No legislative progress was reported, and some criminal defamation
cases proceeded in the courts. In July, a judge in the northwestern city of
Mbandaka sentenced freelance journalist Bienvenu Yay to a six-month suspended term
and ordered him to pay US$500 in damages in connection with a story critical of
the former provincial governor, according to JED. The National Assembly did
pass a bill in October establishing a regulatory agency, the High Council for
Broadcasting, that many journalists hope will be independent. Kanyimbo called a
provision that the council’s nine members have professional media credentials
or experience a rare victory for the press.

Kanyimbo and other female
journalists have taken notable leadership roles in the Congolese press and have
fostered training in the coverage of women’s issues. In South Kivu, which has
been devastated by systematic rape, the Association of Women Journalists
trained aspiring female journalists and produced radio programs spotlighting
women’s issues. Such work drew reprisals. Reporters Delphie Namuto and Caddy
Adzuba of Radio Okapi and Jolly Kamuntu of Radio Maendeleo, all members of the
Association of Women Journalists, were threatened in an anonymous text message
in September. The message, sent to Namuto, said: “You have a bad habit of
interfering in what does not concern you to show that you are untouchable. Now,
some of you will die so that you shut up. We’ve just been authorized to start
with [Adzuba], then Kamuntu, then Namuto: a bullet to the head.”

CPJ wrote to U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had visited the eastern city of
Goma in August,to urge her to “impress upon the authorities in
the Democratic Republic of Congo the importance of the safety of human rights
defenders, including journalists reporting on the war and its impact on
vulnerable sections of the population, particularly women.” In October,
hundreds of journalists staged marches in nine provinces to urge authorities to
intervene in ongoing threats and violence against journalists. “We wanted to
impress on them that the press represents a barometer of democracy,” Kanyimbo
told CPJ.

The dangers were greatest
in the eastern city of Bukavu, where a reporter was murdered in unclear circumstances.
Several assailants stabbed Bruno
Koko Chirambiza, 24, a presenter with Radio Star, in August as he was walking
home from a wedding with a friend. Chirambiza was found with his personal
belongings intact, including a mobile phone and 5,600 Congolese francs (US$7),
according to Radio Star Program Director Jimmy Bianga. CPJ was investigating
the killing to determine whether it was related to Chirambiza’s work. No
arrests were reported, although local journalists said a mob had lynched one
person suspected in the attack.

The Chirambiza slaying was
the third involving a Bukavu journalist in as many years. Didace Namujimbo, a
reporter for Radio Okapi, was shot at close range near his home late one
evening in November 2008. The journalist’s brother, Déo Namujimbo, told CPJ
that the victim’s cell phone was missing but cash had been left in his wallet.
Suspects were identified and detained within days, but little progress has been
reported in the courts. The motive remained unclear, and CPJ was investigating
to determine whether the killing was related to Namujimbo’s work

Serge Maheshe, an editor
and reporter for Radio Okapi, was gunned down in Bukavu in June 2007 as he was
preparing to board a U.N. vehicle with two friends, according to news reports
and CPJ interviews. The gunmen shot Maheshe several times in the chest and
legs; the journalist’s companions were uninjured. CPJ has determined the
killing was in reprisal for Maheshe’s work. Three men were ultimately convicted
in the murder, but the proceedings were widely criticized for serious
violations of the defendants’ basic rights. Journalists, observers, and lawyers
were also threatened during the proceedings, according to local and
international media.

The absence of effective law enforcement allowed a culture of threats
and violence to continue. In April, Déo Namujimbo received e-mail death threats that noted his
involvement in a report by Reporters Without Borders on the murders of his
brother and Maheshe, according to news reports. Namujimbo, who was also a leader
of the Congolese National Press Union in South Kivu, won political asylum in France and hastily moved his family from the region.
“Bukavu, the same city where I found shelter in July 2004 when the men of
former warlord Gen. Laurent Nkunda were looking for me over a story about rebel
atrocities, was becoming synonymous with deadly insecurity for journalists,”
Namujimbo wrote on the CPJ Blog.